It seems as if today we have a "better class" of sea people; those who can buy an airline ticket to a country close to their desired migration target country, and from there, buy another ticket on a boat and sail to our shores, claiming asylum from persecution.
Persecution from what? For having more money than their fellows who have to stay behind?
I feel sympathy for those people who live in harsh conditions in other countries and I can understand their wish to escape to a relative paradise which is Australia, but how can they claim "refuge" here when they have already travelled through one or two relatively safer countries than the one they claimed to have escaped?
My understanding is that some of these people whose claim for refuge is accepted, later on go back from this safe haven to visit or holiday in the country they claimed to have escaped from. This seems bizarre.
Immigration has an economic effect on the country who accepts immigrants. It swells the population with consumers who stimulate the economy (of those who sell us stuff) but it exerts a downward pressure on domestic wages as those who have escaped from poverty find even our minimum wage attractive.
And for those who can't or won't find a job, it places a burden on our social security system.
I find this issue very personally challenging as I want to support those in real need but I also don't want to be ripped off by those who claim they are refugees but are really not under the Convention definition.
